UP assembly elections: Home buyers call for poll boycott

About 10,000 buyers who are invested in various projects in Greater Noida west or Noida Extension have called for a demonstration and protest on January 8 morning at Noida Extension.Sharmila Bhowmick | TNN | January 07, 2017, 07:31 IST

NOIDA: With the hopes of getting their dream homes already crushed post the impact of demonetization, the home buyers of Noida Extension, who are present residents of Noida and Ghaziabad have called for a protest demanding a boycott of UP polls on February 11, when UP goes to the first phase of elections. The buyers will raise slogans of their Twitter campaign, #NoHouseNoVote to call for a vote-boycott.

About 10,000 buyers who are invested in various projects in Greater Noida west or Noida Extension have called for a demonstration and protest on January 8 morning at Noida Extension. The buyers who are all set to gather under the umbrella of the Noida Flat Owners Welfare Association (Nefowa) claim that most of the apartments in the region should have been already complete and handed over. But land acquisition issues and other procedural delays and even delays by builders have stagnated the hand over and possession process over last many years. Most apartments in Noida Extension are delayed by 3-5 years.

"We will demonstrate and raise our voice against the inaction of Credai, Noida authority and the State Government who have all failed to support and expedite the buyer's concern. So we have decided to refuse to be a part of the coming elections and almost 10,000 among us will not cast votes. We will also request most home buyers who are victims of delayed projects to refuse to not cast votes," Abhishek Kumar, president, Nefowa said.

The Noida home buyers have been for some time running two Twitter campaigns demanding their homes: #NoHouseNoVote and #AkhileshjiGharDilwado. The buyers will take their vote boycott campaign online on January 8 again.

Responding to the protest call, Credai western UP vice president, Amit Modi claimed that Credai being an association of builders themselves have mostly tried to expedite issues at Noida Authority level. "The builders have been trying their best to deliver. The buyers can reach out to us for individual concerns, builders even now are working on completion and handover," Modi said.

Noida extension has 58 ongoing projects which hosts over 3 lakh apartment units. The major builders present in the area are Amrapali, Supertech, Gaur, Nirala, Patel, Paramount, Vedantam, Devika, Earth, Shri group, among others. Of these, about 15000 apartments in total have been handed over for possession by the builders and are also presently occupied. By the estimate of Nefowa, at least 1.5 lakh apartments should have been handed over by 2016 end.